Chapter 452: Dwarven Resolve

Urist was feeling great; after weeks without any alcohol in his system, his crankiness had been turned up to eleven. Thankfully, his waiting around had paid off, and now a new group of challengers had appeared.

Only two of them appeared to be with the Adventurers Guild, but it wasn't like they had a monopoly over this ancient labyrinth. If anyone had a claim to own it, it was the dwarves, and the feisty yet weirdly loyal Sylbera's presence rectified that. She was probably one of the strangest dwarves he had ever come across, and while she tried to hide it, she seemed to be in service to one of the elves.

The two races got along well enough, with usually the elves being the pricklier of the bunch, unless there was a lack of alcohol. Sylbera must have been getting paid ludicrously well to be in her position, and considering the alcohol he had gotten for a mere pittance of two broken slime cores, well, it seemed the elf was loaded.

She had a gold adventurer tag and was a bloody Riftmancer of all things, so I figured she could carry her weight. I think the other one must be some branch head's kid to get such an epic escort. Seriously, what is one of that crazy golemancer's apprentices doing here?

Urist had a lot of questions, but at the prospect of finally getting out of here without a significant chance of death, he held his tongue. Considering this was literally the worst labyrinth to get carried through, all five of them must be able to hold their own, or they wouldn't have survived the solo portion of this horrible place, unlike his party.

If they had been closer, he might have felt bad about their untimely demise, but they had practically followed him here against his best wishes, and they paid the price. They probably figured that as long as they lucked through the maze, Urist could have finished off the boss for them.

Urist had confidence he could actually beat this boss on his own, provided someone at least kept the medusa's gaze off of him for a time, and he was actually willing to do that for the weird elf called Syl, until the party size increased dramatically. From the information he had gathered from previous challengers of this place, the final boss received several boons depending on how many challenged it. The best setup was just a pair working in tandem, and now they were three times above that.

Or maybe I'll be the one getting carried, Urist joked to himself.

"Who daresss enter my domain?"

The medusa made her presence known as she declared her challenge. The arena they were in provided minimal cover, with only a few pillars or fallen statues scattered about to hide behind. Urist clicked his tongue in annoyance; it certainly wasn't doable on his own, just like he suspected.

If there were a few more pillars or better terrain, I could have tried this on my own. I guess I must thank the gods I didn't grow too impatient in my forced sobriety.

Emerging from a pit, the medusa slithered out. Her body was huge, bigger than any monster he had previously fought, but only if you took into account the entire length of her snake portion. The medusa was a legendary evolution of a lamia, already an extremely rare evolution, yet this labyrinth made the impractical impossible a reality.

She had the lower half of a snake, and the torso of a beautiful woman. Well, for human and maybe elf standards. Urist wasn't impressed by such a lithe figure, although that was only if you didn't take into account her scaled size. Her "human" torso was roughly the size of a minotaur, so she was a giant woman, and she even had two pairs of arms, each holding a weapon set: a two-handed trident between the lower pair and a sword and shield with the upper pair.

As for the rest of her, Urist didn't dare look. He knew she was supposed to have a supernatural beauty to her face that drew you to her eyes, and that was when your fate was sealed. On top of all that, she had snakes for hair, with each snake holding a different kind of venom. Supposedly, the snake hair could be extended out to bite you when you least suspected it, but Urist had long since grown immune to such forms of foul play thanks to his warrior's fortitude and his dwarven constitution.

Last, and certainly not least, was her snake tail, and this was potentially the most annoying part of the fight. The snake tail was both stronger, larger, and longer than even a magma-tempered worm, and on top of that it had a legendary regeneration that was more than likely boosted by their party size. No, if you wanted to defeat the medusa, you had to ignore the tail and go for the weaker humanoid portion.

It really is a shitty situation. They give you this huge target, and you aren't even allowed to hit it. But it's certainly allowed to hit you.

The medusa had slithered out, pretty much surrounding the entire area with her partially coiled tail. This let her lunge forward with her torso or even slap down with the end of her tail while keeping the party trapped in the middle. The other reason was that the exit was in the lair where she emerged, and she wanted to prevent anyone from running.

It wouldn't count as a victory, but if you wanted to abandon the challenge, you could attempt to flee; key word: attempt.

"Remember, don't look at her eyes. Don't bother fighting the tail; we need to kill the torso. It doesn't have the same regeneration!" Urist shouted to his impromptu party.

"Oh, regeneration, huh…" Syl replied, with a clearly mischievous tone.

Urist wasn't sure what was so humorous about it. Regeneration was one of the most annoying things you could face, and he somehow doubted that the legendary Riftmancer class would have a method to stop that.

"Let's go, Sylbera, we will draw the beast's attention!" Urist declared and charged forward.

Thankfully, Sylbera followed his lead, only to suddenly vanish from his side.

Teleportation!

It had happened so fast he couldn't believe it. Was this the fabled skill [Blink]? Or something else? Sylbera had reappeared behind and above the medusa's humanoid torso and came crashing down like a meteor with her massive hammer.

"You dare!?" the medusa hissed in anger, spinning around to strike at the dwarf with her sword and trident.

But Sylbera was already gone, not even bothering to try to block, and instantly reappeared behind the medusa again like a second meteor, striking her blind spot. Urist couldn't believe what he was seeing, and suddenly all the stories about why almost no one with a dimensional affinity lived to an old age—this power was just too unreasonable.

On its own, it might have been fine, but in the hands of a general or a ruler, you could transport your army across battlefields, and there was little you could do to stop it. Capital cities usually held ancient arcane devices to prevent dimensional intrusions, but such things were rare and too costly to upkeep for everyone.

And the elves have one… Bugger me, I hope the idiots in charge are still keeping that non-human alliance in good condition.

He wondered why he hadn't been teleported into combat, but then he realized it might have actually been a terrible idea. He'd never fought with an ally who could position him across the battlefield, and it might leave him disoriented or worse, face-to-face with the medusa if he wasn't prepared.

With his momentary distraction gone, Urist finally charged in himself. He activated [Mighty Leap], his legs surging with strength, and jumped. Normally he wouldn't do this against this foe, but she was still very much distracted thanks to Sylbera teleporting around. The distance was closed in no time, and his greataxe hungered for blood as he swung it at the medusa's undefended back.

Several skills went off in tandem with his passive [Axe Mastery]: [Armor Break], [Brutal Cleave], and [Critical Boost]. This was something he was quite proud of, achieving a perfect trio of skills together, and it was what had earned him his paragon class, something not many warriors could brag about. The strike was powerful and unexpected, almost ignoring the monster's armor entirely and leaving a savage wound.

The medusa instantly changed targets, no longer seeing Sylbera as the threat and instead focusing on Urist. He had expected this; not many warriors could keep up with his aggro generation. [Titan Skin] activated to block the medusa's sword that struck him, while he used [Reverse Swing] and [Counter Blow] together to instantly change his greataxe's trajectory to meet the trident, the clearly deadlier of the weapons.

This was going to be the hard part, as he now needed to defend himself without being able to properly look at his opponent. But it was the job he signed up for, and he was going to have fun doing it. He somewhat went on the back foot as he was forced to be defensive, continuing to use [Titan Skin] on the sword while trying his best to land [Counter Blow] on the trident.

I should have put more effort into leveling up [Blind Sense]. Oh well, maybe if I defend enough, Sylbera will draw its attention again.

Urist unfortunately missed one of his parries, but rather than feeling the pain of the trident piercing his flesh, he found it blocked by a magical barrier.

[Arcane Armor]! Ha, I guess I can keep tanking the blows for longer than I expected.

With renewed vigor, he kept doing his best, even earning a level in [Blind Sense] for all his troubles. Nothing beat fighting through adversity, and the medusa was clearly pushing his abilities to the limit. Or so he thought, but every time he made a minor screw-up, something seemed to happen.

Urist was proud of his poison immunity, but one of the medusa's snakes sprayed an acidic mist until a wind shield appeared and prevented his armor and flesh from dissolving. The same happened when a sneak attack came at him, and suddenly a rocky [Barricade] spell formed to protect him.

"If you want a break, let me know, and I'll teleport you out!" Syl shouted.

"Okay, but I think I can keep going for a minute or two, then I'll take a breather!" Urist shouted back.

He was stubborn, but not stupid, so he would gladly take the help if offered. Big adventuring groups often called this maneuver a tank swap, although they usually didn't have a dimension mage in their pocket to do so. Urist's issue was that he was just too good at pissing off monsters, but even against a legendary medusa, he needed a short break.

"Okay, I'm—" he tried to say before the world around him twisted. "—ready…"

He blinked in surprise, finding himself back near the entrance, standing next to Syl and Sylvester, who had basically not moved from the spot since they had come here. Sylvain and Sylthaeryn had apparently chosen to reposition, but that was not what surprised him.

"What the…" he couldn't help muttering as he saw the mighty medusa's tail suffering from a shocking number of wounds.

In the back of his mind, he had wondered why he had never been struck from behind by a massive tail slap, and now he had the answer: this group had made it impossible. He probably should have noticed the lack of attacks against the torso, but he had been too focused on blocking and counterattacking her blows to really pay attention.

The golemancer apprentice had unveiled his army, but instead of attacking the torso, they used it to pin down the snake's tail. They were large and cumbersome, but they made up for their lack of precision with numbers and force, working together to keep the tail pinned down and interfering.

Meanwhile, the other elf was firing arrow after arrow at the tail, but instead of the arrows bouncing off the scales, they actually pierced through! But the surprise didn't end there, as each arrow seemed to have some magical effect or other. Some left sizzling wounds, some went straight through the snake and came out the other side, and some even exploded! Urist had heard not to underestimate the fabled elven archers, but this was beyond anything he could imagine.

The other human appeared to be some kind of tempest mage, as he commanded wind, water, and occasionally ice. He wasn't as impressive as the archer, which seemed downright supernatural, but he was definitely pulling his weight. Beams of pressurized water blasted the torso, while layers of ice tried to freeze it to the ground, helping the golems, and wind gathered and dispersed any corrosive gases.

Then there was the Riftmancer, and while her effort seemed mostly focused on keeping everyone safe, she occasionally attacked. Urist couldn't even describe what he was seeing, as the elf would wave her hand and suddenly a wound would appear on the snake. He'd be lying if he said he wasn't impressed, but the elf instead seemed to click her tongue in annoyance and repeat it, only to make an even bigger cut.

Am I the one getting carried? Also, why aren't the wounds healing? Was I lied to about the regeneration?

"Do you need a healing potion?" Syl asked casually as she did that strange magic again; this time, it seemed to get the result she wanted, and a smile erupted on her face.

Urist couldn't help but glance over and saw that she had succeeded in severing off a large portion of the snake tail. The murderous screaming from the medusa certainly hinted at the severity of such a loss. Yet it didn't end there; a strange cracking sound followed, and space itself shattered.

Above where the severed tail was was now an ominous hole, as if reality had been broken. Urist thought he couldn't believe his eyes, but then something came out, something appearing like a shapeless mass of tentacles that snatched out at the tail and dragged it through the hole that was continuing to grow larger. He gulped, and against his better judgment, he used [Identify] as the creature pulled the last bit of the tail inside the hole, which then began closing up.

<Void Horror>

"Don't worry, I got my own," Urist finally managed to reply.